Extreme Fabric Automation (EFA) is a micro-services-based scalable fabric automation application.
EFA automates and orchestrates SLX IP fabrics, Extreme 8000 series, and tenant
networks, with support for the following:
Building and managing small
data center (non-Clos) fabrics and 3-stage and 5-stage IP Clos fabrics
Managing tenant-aware Layer 2
and Layer 3 networks
Integrating Virtual
Management ecosystem platforms, such as VMWare vCenter, OpenStack, and
Microsoft SCVMM
Providing a single point of
configuration for your entire fabric
EFA consists of core K3s containerized services that interact with each other and
with other infrastructure services to provide the core functions of fabric and
tenant network automation. For more information, see EFA Microservices.
TPVM (Third-Party Virtual
Machine) is a guest VM that resides on Extreme SLX devices. You can run EFA from the SLX 9150, SLX 9250, Extreme 8520, Extreme 8720, or SLX 9740
TPVM. In this context, EFA leverages the K3S Kubernetes cluster as an underlying infrastructure for
the EFA services deployment. The K3S cluster is a single instance and an
important component for supporting high availability. A maximum of 24
devices is supported, either 24 devices in one fabric or 24 devices across
multiple fabrics.
EFA on an external VM
You can deploy EFA on an external Virtual Machine to support more than 24 devices or based
on where tools are deployed in the data center.
EFA for high availability
A high-availability cluster
is a group of servers that provide continuous up time, or at least minimum
down time, for the applications on the servers in the group. If an
application on one server fails, another server in the cluster maintains the
availability of the service or application. You can install EFA on a two-node cluster, including on TPVM, for high availability.
